More than 120 killed in Baghdad bombings

More than 120 people were killed in a string of car bombings in Baghdad as the
Iraqi government announced a date for elections in the new year.

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More than 120 people were killed in a string of car bombings in BaghdadPhoto: AFP / GETTY

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Iraqi security forces and rescuers search for survivors at the site of the bomb blastPhoto: AP

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A US soldier walks past a burned bus at the site of one of the bomb blastsPhoto: REUTERS

By Richard Spencer

6:38PM GMT 08 Dec 2009

The interior ministry, a court building and the temporary home of the finance ministry, which was moved after its previous premises were destroyed by a truck bomb in August, were all targeted in the third co-ordinated attack on the heart of the city in four months.

The oil ministry, due to host the next in a series of auctions of contracts to international energy companies later this week, was also shaken.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the attacks bore the hallmarks of what the government believes is a collaboration between al-Qaeda-backed cells and supporters of the Ba'athist regime of the late leader, Saddam Hussein.

They will renew fears of a surge of orchestrated attacks aimed at disrupting the forthcoming general election, rules for which were finally passed at the weekend. Shortly after the blasts, the election commission said the vote would now be held on March 6.

In the first blast, a suicide bomber blew up a car packed with explosives near a police patrol in the southern Baghdad suburb of Dora. Three policemen died, along with 12 students from a nearby technical college, according to an interior ministry official.

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About half an hour later, four bombs went off in the centre and west of the city within minutes of each other. At least one was detonated by a suicide bomber, while the other two are thought to have been detonated remotely or by a timer.

The finance ministry appeared to have suffered the worst casualties, this time from an ambulance rigged with explosives. Among the dead in the west of the city were judges working at the appeals court, which was relocated following the October bombing.

Officials gave numbers for the dead at between 122 and 127, while the number of wounded was put at 197. Survivors said women and children were still buried under the debris of buildings that collapsed under the strength of the blasts.

The overall rate of violence in Iraq has continued to decline this year, even since the American military withdrew from urban areas. But this is the third "spectacular" aimed at ministry buildings since the middle of August.

On that occasion, more than 100 people died in twin suicide truck explosions outside the foreign and finance ministries. At the end of October, another double bombing killed 155.

Maj-Gen Qassim al-Moussawi, the military spokesman, said: "The same hands that implemented the August and October attacks have carried out today's terrorist attacks against innocent civilians,"

The attacks come as a particular blow to prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, who has made improved security a central plank of his campaign for re-election. His Shia-led coalition has split, with a wide array of parties now seeking alliances across the sectarian divide in advance of the elections.

The attacks, blamed on Sunni insurgents, whether allied to al-Qaeda or as Mr Maliki says loyal to Saddam Hussein henchmen operating from outside the country, appear to be designed to undermine him further.

"These cowardly terrorist attacks that took place in Baghdad today, after the Parliament succeeded in overcoming the last obstacle to conducting elections confirms that the enemies of Iraq and its people are aiming at creating chaos in the country, blocking political progress and delaying the elections," Mr Maliki said in a statement.

After the previous attacks, confessions were obtained from men who claimed to acting under orders from Ba'ath party operatives in exile in Syria.

Opposition party leaders claim that corrupt security officers are to blame for allowing the bombers through the checkpoints that ring the city, and accuse Mr Maliki of losing control of the situation.

"We all feel – and all the world feels – that the Iraqi people are fed up of sufferings and something should be done to stop this," said Mohammed Shareef Ahmed, Kurdish member of parliament.